Yes, this is a very real downside, but Apple has put effort into making the home screen more customizable than it was. It has an app drawer, it has the ability to add/remove home screens without filling one up first, and it has widgets, the major omissions that Android hasn't been missing for many years.
And, yes, it would be really nice if Apple had a system to install third-party launchers, there's no denying that.
I know this is really silly, but you can definitely workaround the issue and effectively have the same end result as Android if you really want it:
https://iempty.tooliphone.net
Overall, every individual omission from one platform to another is going to be a question of what is important to the buyer.
For some, it might seem ridiculous that, in fifteen years, Apple still doesn't offer a truly customizable home screen. That's a fair criticism. At the same time, it's a fair criticism that it took until 2021 for Google to release a phone that will get 5 years of security and feature updates (Apple never guaranteed this directly, but the iPhone 6S delivered that level of support from when it launched in 2015 until the release of iOS 16 this fall that will drop iPhone 6S support: 7 years of full feature and security updates).
Meanwhile, if you bought a Pixel 3 in 2018, you got your final update this year. I personally think that's downright unacceptable considering the maturity of smartphones when it was released.
The problem with me making comparisons like this is that they'll always seem like a cheap whataboutism, but that's generally how these feature-to-feature comparisons work. For me, in 2016, I saw a situation where Google was not delivering everything I needed in a smartphone, but I also recognize that other people have other needs.